I have an extreme, unending love for Grandpa’s Cheesebarn. It’s an Ohio institution. There’s that one tweet that says driving through Ohio is “corn, corn, corn, GRANDPA’S CHEESEBARN, corn, corn corn” and it’s mostly true. Everyone from Ohio at least *vaguely* knows that Grandpa’s Cheesebarn exists, if they haven’t visited themselves.
Grandpa’s Cheesebarn sells a *very* wide variety of consumables; some made in-house, some not. I’m fairly certain this root beer was not made in house, based on a label note about a distributor in the Cleveland metro area. But, without a doubt, Grandpa would never put his name on an inferior product, right? I’m sure that Grandpa, who by some accounts may be a cartoon mouse in overalls, has personally tasted this root beer and given it the OK.
Place of Acquirement: Grandpa’s Cheesebarn, Ashland, OH
Drinking Vessel/Portion: 12oz glass bottle, dark
AROMATICS: 7.5/10
Pleasant root beer smell. I get a little bit of wintergreen in there? Not 100% sure yet.
FIRST SIP: 6.5/10
So far, kind of a standard root beer flavor. Seems sweeter than usual?
TASTE: 7/10
It seems to be a pretty standard root beer. No frills, no special/predominate ingredients. Here’s the thing that’s interesting: you sip the soda, and it blasts you with sweetness. Pretty quickly after that sip, the sweetness fades and you’re left with a pretty alright root beer taste.
AFTERTASTE: 8/10
Pleasant aftertaste, retains some sweetness and flavor.
MOUTHFEEL: 7.5/10
Standard mouthfeel, nothing to write home about.
DEPTH OF FLAVOR: 5.5/10
It’s not pushing the envelope here, just a pretty regular ol’ root beer taste. Nothing immediately discernible as far as individual tastes go.
SWEETNESS: 8.5/10
As mentioned in the taste section, this root beer is a tad difficult to quantify. I’m going to go off of the main, initial sweetness, which is definitely sweeter than average.
FLAVOR(S) TASTED: “root beer” flavor
LAST SIP: 6/10
Loses sweetness and carbonation, sadly.
OVERALL RATING: 6.5/10
This root beer is pretty decent. You’re certainly not going to regret drinking it, but it’s nothing that’ll go in your bullet journal or Fortnite-branded folder of favorite foods. It turned out to be a pretty decent traditional root beer with little ambition, nothing more.
As for Grandpa and his Cheesebarn, the root beer is respectable. They have incredible cheese, and Sweetie’s (the sweet shop) has some of my favorite dark chocolate around. If they made the root beer in-house, I’m sure they’d nail it. In the meantime, they have a serviceable soda that easily meets the standard expectations for root beer.
